An example of an obduction melange: The Alakır Çay unit, Antalya Complex, southwest Turkey

Abstract

The Antalya Complex in southwestern Turkey lies along the Cyprus-Hatay ophiolitic belt of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Antalya Complex contains, from west to east, the autochthonous Mesozoic-Cenozoic platform carbonates of the Bey Daglari massif and three allochthonous units: the Kumluca Complex of imbricate Mesozoic continental-margin sedimentary rocks; the Alakir Cay unit, a mélange of oceanic and carbonate margin rocks; and the Late Cretaceous Tekirova (partial) ophiolite.One of the allochthonous units, the Alakir (Jay, is interpreted here as a mélange. The Alakir Cav unit contains a great variety of clasts, derived from continental margin to pelagic environments. Ophiolitic rocks are the most conspicuous component. The matrix varies from pelagic marls to pillow-basalt flows and serpentinite and is essentially absent locally. The Alakir (Jay mélange contains ophiolitic debris of probable Late Cretaceous age and is overlain by a conglomerate sequence with clasts containing a Maestrichtian fauna.The Alakir (Jay mélange formed during obduction in front of advancing ophiolite sheets, thrust over a relatively flat foreland of the Kumluca continental margin. The initiation of deformation is assumed to be a result of thrusting related to compression. The mélange movement took place as submarine slides that successively occupied flysch basins developed in front of the advancing thrust mass during Late Cretaceous time. The Alakir (Jay mélange was emplaced on the Bey Daglari autochthon during the late Miocene.on July 14, 2015 specialpapers.gsapubs.org Downloaded from

Developments in research concerning Mesozoic–Tertiary Tethys and neotectonics in the Isparta Angle, SW Turkey

“…pillow lavas, cherts; equivalent to the Gödene Zone). These marginal and volcanogenic units ranged from imbricate slices to tectonic-sedimentary mélange, similar to that previously reported from the SW area Ylmaz and Maxwell 1984). The mélange is directly overlain by one or several thrust sheets of mainly Mesozoic neritic limestones (Gökin Tepe, Asar Tepe).…”

“…Şengör and Ylmaz (1981) envisioned the Isparta Angle as a fault-bounded northward re-entrant of a southerly Neotethyan ocean basin. Ylmaz and Maxwell (1984) viewed the Antalya allochthon as having formed as a megashear basin, unrelated to spreading. Waldron (1984b) and, later, Dilek and Rowland (1993) interpreted the Isparta Angle as a Triassic rift opening into a Cretaceous ocean basin, a view shared by the Project Tethys group ('Mesogea' of Dercourt et al 1986Dercourt et al , 1993.…”

“…Ylmaz envisaged a lateral transition from a Bey Daglar carbonate platform in the west, across a deep-water unit (her Kumluca unit), into a Triassic rifted basin (her Alakr Ç ay unit), with a rifted continental fragment further east (her Teke-Tahtal Dag units), with the Tekirova ophiolite further east again. Rather than a spreading centre, Ylmaz and Maxwell (1984) envisaged formation of the ophiolite as related to a zone of intra-continental megashearing. All of the units between the thrust-imbricated Kumluca unit in the west and the Tekirova ophiolite in the east were interpreted as a giant obduction mélange.…”

“…serpentinite, gabbros, etc.). These limestones were incorporated into the Antalya allochthon essentially as mélange (Ylmaz and Maxwell 1984), by dominantly strike-slip (transpressional) processes during latest Cretaceous-Palaeocene time (Robertson and Woodcock 1980b;Figure 8). Fourthly, in the E and SE areas the upper limestone units were emplaced over basinal units of the Antalya allochthon in pre-Eocene time (e.g.…”

Origin of metamorphic soles and their post‐kinematic mafic dyke swarms in the Antalya and Lycian ophiolites, SW Turkey

“…These units are, in ascending tectonostratigraphic order: (1) the Lycian basement, which is composed of the Menderes Metamorphic Massif and the Bey Daglar unit; (2) the Lycian Thrust Sheets, which consist mainly of carbonate thrust sheets, bedded radiolarite, shale and volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks of Late Palaeozoic to Oligocene age, including Eocene clastic sedimentary rocks; (3) the Lycian Mélange, composed of oceanic-derived sedimentary and igneous lithologies; (4) the Lycian Peridotite Thrust Sheet, composed mainly of serpentinized peridotite with a metamorphic sole; and (5) the supra-allochthon sediments, shallow-water limestones of Palaeogene age. (after Juteau 1975;Robertson and Woodcock 1979;Ylmaz and Maxwell 1984).…”